Poolin Chapter 11: $164M Owed to ~11,700 Wallet Users

Poolin, the one-time Bitcoin mining powerhouse, has filed for Chapter 11 protection and left roughly 11,700 wallet users holding about $163.7 million in IOUs. The situation involves a mix of bank cash, Texas mining sites, intercompany claims, and a proposed set of asset sales that together make this more of a forensic puzzle than a quick payout.

The situation, in plain (and slightly sarcastic) English

Three entities — the Singapore-based wallet business and two Texas mining affiliates — filed for Chapter 11 in New Jersey in late July. The wallet arm says it owes about $163.7 million to customers who were promised deposit-style returns. When Bitcoin crashed in mid-2022, collateral backing some of those loans plunged, lenders moved in, and the company ultimately suspended withdrawals in September 2022 and issued IOUs instead of cash.

The Texas affiliates hold the physical stuff: land, power rights, substations and mining rigs. Those sites were part of an ambitious expansion that aimed for hundreds of megawatts of power but ended up with far less usable power than planned, leaving more gear than juice to run it. One Texas entity has already shut down its mining and hosting operation and does not plan to resume mining.

For context, Poolin was once among the biggest Bitcoin mining pools — at its peak the pool’s combined hashrate exceeded 25 exahashes per second and it mined tens of thousands of blocks over the years. That glory day, sadly, doesn’t instantly translate to cash in a courtroom.

Where the money might come from — and why this looks ugly

Two Lonestar affiliates have proposed opening-sale offers for the Texas assets totaling about $52 million. Those bids were submitted as stalking-horse deals (a fancy bankruptcy word meaning “here’s the opening price”) — split roughly into two pieces: about $15 million for one site and $37 million for another. That $52 million math is roughly one-third of the raw IOU total, but that’s before legal fees, lien payoffs, administrative expenses, intercompany fights, and whoever else puts a legal hand up at the court.

Poolin Technology itself reports only a small bank balance, an office lease and an intercompany claim against the Texas debtors — which means whether wallet customers ever see much depends on how the court values and moves money between these separate estates. The stalking-horse bidders have protections too: breakup fees of about 3% and capped expense reimbursements for the two site deals, which also come out of sale proceeds if a higher bid wins.

The debtors say they reached out broadly — hundreds of potential buyers, dozens of nondisclosure agreements, several letters of intent — and are pitching the sites not just to miners but to operators who might want the land and power hookups for AI or other data-center projects. If an AI or infrastructure buyer bites, prices could be higher than the current opening offers, but there are no guarantees; marketing interest doesn’t equal closed deals.

The proposed calendar included an initial court hearing in late July, a bid procedures hearing in August, a deadline for qualified offers in early September, an auction in mid-September if needed, and a target closing date at the end of November — all subject to the judge signing off and real bidders showing up with cash.

Bottom line: this is going to take time. Creditors and wallet holders should expect a legal maze of sales, lien priorities, intercompany claims and administrative costs to determine what — if anything — trickles down to unsecured wallet IOUs. Don’t hold your breath for full repayment, but do keep an eye on auction activity; a competitive bidding war (especially from non-mining buyers who value power and land) is the clearest route to improving recoveries.

In short: messy bankruptcy, complicated asset split, and an uncertain payoff for users who’ve been waiting since 2022. Bring popcorn — and patience.